Godmetal theory

[2spooky4myshirt]

There is not a lot of evidence for this theory yet. So this is mostly speculation. But I think the 16 godmetals correspond to the 16 metals used on Scadrial.

Which is to say I think each one of the 16 would react in a similar way if used allomanticlly, feruchemaclly, or through hemalurgy.

Atium is the only solid example. I think its an advanced form of gold, burned with allomancy they see through time. Tapped as a metalmind they both store a kind of vitality. And used as a spike they both steal powers. The only Atium alloy we know of is also part gold.

Going by that information we can theorize that other godmetals would work on similar lines.

Lesarium for example may be advanced Duralumin. Instead of enhancing allomancy when burned the godmetal grants it. Which means if somehow a metalmind were to be made of the stuff it would store something Connection related. Hard to guess what with no solid details, but maybe as duralumin focuses on communication and language the advanced version could store bonds.

Any other godmetal is beyond me to guess as we would need an allomancer, and probably a full mistborn at that, to eat a piece and burn it before we could learn anything. Best we have to go by is fabrial interactions with metal, and that only gives us a small hint towards Raizium.

Raysium works as a conductor for investiture which makes me think of nicrosil which stores the stuff in metalminds. Strange that the metal of Odium wouldn't have emotional allomancy, but Ruin lets you live forever so correlation was out the window from the beginning.

Hopefully as Sanderson reveals more we can see if this proves true or not. And if it does we should pay close attention as one godmetal will pair with aluminum.

 

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

theoretically, anyone can burn the pure form of a given god metal, or at least anyone from Scandrial.

[The Bookwyrm]

I don't know about correspondence, but there are definitely connections. I'm pretty sure that each God Metal has an alloy with each normal metal, making a total of...what, 288 possible viable allomantic metals? And that's not even counting God Metal alloys with other God Metals. 

Anyway, I think this could be possible. If Preservation somehow had previous knowledge of the God Metals, maybe he used that as a template when designing allomancy for Scadrial. This would make the relationship you talk about probable. But I'm not sure. Like you said, we'd have to learn a lot more in general. I'm sure it will all make sense someday, but not anytime soon. Sadly.

5 hours ago, EmulatonStromenkiin said:

theoretically, anyone can burn the pure form of a given god metal, or at least anyone from Scandrial.

I seriously need to look into that more. Starting with listening to the Atium Shardcast....

Edited May 25, 2022 by The Bookwyrm

[Rg2045]

Isn’t hoid a mistborn? Unless it’s though a different means he should be proof that anyone can burn the god metals 

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

6 hours ago, Rg2045 said:

Isn’t hoid a mistborn? Unless it’s though a different means he should be proof that anyone can burn the god metals 

Hoid had a bead of lerasium, so he is probably at least a misting, which you can become by alloying lerasium with the various normal allomantic metals then burning it. I think that whether he is a full mistborn has been RAFOed, but I could be wrong.

[Anomander Rake]

17 hours ago, Rg2045 said:

Isn’t hoid a mistborn? Unless it’s though a different means he should be proof that anyone can burn the god metals 

Hoid is a full Mistborn after consuming the bead from the well.  IDK why he'd want to alloy it to just be a misting

edit - and a damn strong one at that.  He ate one of the OG 16 beads so he's as strong as Elend was

Edited May 25, 2022 by Anomander Rake
more info

[Rg2045]

11 minutes ago, Anomander Rake said:

Hoid is a full Mistborn after consuming the bead from the well.  IDK why he'd want to alloy it to just be a misting

edit - and a damn strong one at that.  He ate one of the OG 16 beads so he's as strong as Elend was

So if this is true wouldn’t that mean anyone can burn godmetals but don’t because they don’t know the importance 

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

11 minutes ago, Anomander Rake said:

Hoid is a full Mistborn after consuming the bead from the well.  IDK why he'd want to alloy it to just be a misting

edit - and a damn strong one at that.  He ate one of the OG 16 beads so he's as strong as Elend was

do we have conformation on this? because theoretically he could use it to become a misting in several metals, while still staying not very connected to any specific shard(which is a confirmed thing that he wants to do.

[Anomander Rake]

53 minutes ago, EmulatonStromenkiin said:

do we have conformation on this? because theoretically he could use it to become a misting in several metals, while still staying not very connected to any specific shard(which is a confirmed thing that he wants to do.

54 minutes ago, Rg2045 said:

So if this is true wouldn’t that mean anyone can burn godmetals but don’t because they don’t know the importance 

We do.  Here's one WoB, but there are a number off others.

Spoiler

Questioner

What's lerasium?

Brandon Sanderson

That is the bead of metal that Elend finds at the end of Book 2, that Vin finds and gives to Elend.

Questioner

Oh so there were only two and the Lord Ruler kind of left it there?

Brandon Sanderson

There actually were a bunch of them, and the first Mistborn came from people who ate that. The Lord Ruler took one for himself and he left others there to use if he needed them.

Footnote: Brandon has since canonized that Rashek used the power of the Well of Ascension to make himself into a Mistborn, not a bead of lerasium. Whether that contradicts this, or he used the bead for another purpose is unknown.
Salt Lake City Comic-Con 2014 (Sept. 4, 2014)

IIRC there has been some back and forth on who can / cannot burn godmetals, especially concerning the Lerasium / Atium.  We should learn more on that point soon

Spoiler

Xais56

Brandon has said that everyone ought to be able to burn Atium, like they can all burn Lerasium, and the fact that they can't was an oversight on his part that he would've done different in hindsight.

Maybe now he's had an in-universe reason to re-write the laws of allomancy it's back to his intended concept; Mistborn burn all 16 base metals, mistings burn one base metal, non-allomancers can only burn godmetal.

Peter Ahlstrom

My explanation for this is that Preservation somehow caused all naturally occurring atium to form as an alloy of atium and electrum. The atium Mistings were actually electrum Mistings.

Xais56

It's a very tidy solution, but it creates the maddening question of what does pure atium do?

Peter Ahlstrom

That answer has already been revealed canonically. RAFO.

LewsTherinTelescope

Is this proper canon (or as close as out-of-book statements come), or more Peter the fan theorizing?

Peter Ahlstrom

I’m not totally sure Brandon is happy with this explanation.

Footnote: Brandon later confirmed that this is indeed the case.
General Reddit 2021 (Nov. 2, 2021)

 

*edit* much better WoB lol

Spoiler

Paladin Brewer

Previously you were asked if Hoid could have been using the lerasium to alloy with other metals to change his spiritweb, and you answered it was technically possible. Does that mean you’re finally admitting that Hoid did not digest the bead?

Brandon Sanderson

I am not admitting that. It was possible for him to do that, but he did not.

Skyward Houston signing (Nov. 19, 2018)

 

Edited May 25, 2022 by Anomander Rake

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

1 hour ago, Anomander Rake said:

 

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Paladin Brewer

Previously you were asked if Hoid could have been using the lerasium to alloy with other metals to change his spiritweb, and you answered it was technically possible. Does that mean you’re finally admitting that Hoid did not digest the bead?

Brandon Sanderson

I am not admitting that. It was possible for him to do that, but he did not.

Skyward Houston signing (Nov. 19, 2018)

 

Yes, this is what I sought, thank you.

[Stormtide_Leviathan]

 

19 hours ago, Rg2045 said:

So if this is true wouldn’t that mean anyone can burn godmetals but don’t because they don’t know the importance 

Yeah I think this is exactly how it works honestly. We know that hemalurgy works anywhere in the cosmere, you just have to know and have Intent. But if some rando on roshar knows about hemalurgy and wanted to steal something, all they need is a spike of the right metal. So I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't have to be a scadrian to burn a godmetal, since we know you don't have to be an allomancer to burn lerasium and we saw Hoid burn some and he's not even Scadrian (but he has all kinds of other funkiness on so who knows).

The atium retcon also makes this more interesting. I think the way pure atium now works is that any allomancer can burn it, so it might be that you have to be an allomancer to burn most god metals. But hard to say before any of this makes it into the books